Winds of Change Newsletter, February 2006     See sidebar for table of contents

Voter Beware
Watching the Paper Trail Vital to Make Sure YOUR Vote Counts

by Hedda Hanning

In 2005, the Legislature passed a law requiring that all touch screen voting machines (DRE) used in West Virginia provide a voter verifiable paper ballot. The intent is to assure the voter that her vote is recorded accurately and to allow for a canvass or challenge recount of the vote if needed.

This is excellent, but of course there are potential glitches. For instance:

• The voter might not check the paper ballot for accuracy;
• The printer may malfunction as technical things often do – it is all very new and untested;
• The counties may not prepare adequately for the event of a malfunction, such as having enough back-up machines if malfunctions are widespread;
• For some county officials, the immediate fall-back position may be “well, we don’t need to count those paper ballots anyway.”

If your county uses the new DREs, always remember to check your paper ballot. It is the ballot of record for canvass or recounts.

Get active! Contact your county election officials to ask the following:

• What provisions have you made to alert the voters that they should check the paper ballot for accuracy? Will there be signs at every voting station? Will the poll-workers encourage voters to do so as they hand out the “keys” or “smart cards” for the voting computers?
• Given testing of machines here and elsewhere, how often do you expect equipment malfunction?
• What provisions have you made besides voter awareness to pick up a printer malfunction as soon as it happens? Will poll workers look at the printer for obvious malfunction such as torn paper after each use?
• What provisions have you made to replace malfunctioning machines?
• Do you have enough equipment so that long lines will not develop at the remaining functioning machines?
• Can you envision a circumstance when you would not be able to use the voter verified paper ballot to canvass or audit the election?
• What do you plan to do if you feel that the DRE attached voter verified paper ballot cannot be used to audit the election?
• Do you plan to have extra paper ballots available as back-up for each election until it is obvious that elections will run smoothly with the new machines?